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Art History Courses

The Art History courses offered in 2017-18 are listed below. For a complete list of the courses that may be offered in other years, please visit the Academic Calendar here.

PLEASE NOTE: Due to unforeseen circumstances ARTH211 will not be taught in 2017-18. Instead, ARTH242 has been added to the list of 200-level courses offered by the department this year. We apologize for the late change and hope to offer ARTH211 in 2018-19. Thank you.

2017/2018 Course Offerings:

A survey of famous and lesser-known works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other art forms from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Modern Age. Themes include politics, religion, mythology, gender roles, techniques, conservation and intersections with non-western cultures.

A survey of famous and lesser-known works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other art forms from Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Modern Age. Themes include politics, religion, mythology, gender roles, techniques, conservation and intersections with non-western cultures.

This course will explore the scientific aspects of art conservation, including the materials found in cultural heritage, their degradation, and the scientific techniques used in their analysis. Topics to be discussed include conservation treatments and preventive conservation, as well as forgeries and conservation controversies in history.

An introduction to the arts of the Middle Ages (c.300-1400) from the origins of Christian art under the Emperor Constantine, through the Early Christian, Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic Periods. The focus will be on major monuments and personalities and will also involve a trip to Toronto to study medieval art in the Royal Ontario Museum.

This course will examine the histories, meanings and sites of modern art in the metropolitan West from about the mid nineteenth century to the mid twentieth century. Students will become familiar not only with the works themselves, but with shifts in critical conceptions and key art historical problems surrounding modern art.

PREREQUISITE: Level 2 or above or permission of the Department.

EXCLUSION: No more than 6.0 units from ARTH 226/3.0; ARTH 227/6.0; ARTH 228/3.0

This course will examine the histories, meanings, and sites of contemporary art in the metropolitan West from the 1960’s to the present. Students will becme famliar not only with the works themselves, but with shifts in critical conceptions and popular media that affect both the production and reception of contemporary art.

PREREQUISITE: Level 2 or above or permission of the Department.

EXCLUSION: No more than 6.0 units from ARTH 226/3.0; ARTH 227/6.0; ARTH 228/3.0

Canadian Art I

ARTH 231/3.0

A study of Canadian art from its beginnings through the nineteenth century. The nature and development of Canadian art within the context of the social, political, and economic history of the country will be examined.

An introduction to the history of photography as technology, art, and social practice. Within the larger historical contexts of society and culture, it surveys key developments and applications in France, England, and the United States, and their spread to other parts of the world, and considers the work of major photographers and their influence.

Instruction in Venice based on daily study tours to the city's monuments and galleries. Each week a visit will be organized to an important centre in the Venice region. Costs of travel and accommodation abroad must be paid by the student. Applications open Fall 2017.

PREREQUISITE: 6.0 units in ARTH

Instructor: T.B.A. (Venice Summer School, spring/summer term)

Introduction to the Indigenous Arts of North America - NOT OFFERED 2017-18

ARTH 248/3.0

An introduction to the arts and visual culture of the indigenous peoples of North America from north of the Rio Grande to the Arctic, encompassing pre-history, colonialism, and the modern period. Key works from six regional zones are studied in their historical and cultural contexts.

PREREQUISITE: Level 2 or above or permission of the Department.

Instructor: N/A

Art, Culture and Society - NOT OFFERED 2017-18

ARTH 250/3.0

An introduction to the social conditions and cultural movements that shaped European visual art of the nineteenth century in its global context. The course will stress the tension between modernity and anti-modernism as well as competing views on the very nature of visual art.

A survey of the visual culture of Europe and its colonies in the Baroque age (ca. 1580-1750). Attention is given to developments in all aspects of the visual arts, with emphasis on painting, sculpture, architecture, and the graphic arts, and on the achievements of artists such as Rembrandt, Rubens, Poussin, Velasquez, and Bernini.

An investigation of the impact of war on art and architecture, as well as human attempts to preserve cultural heritage. A chronological or thematic approach may be taken, with focus placed on one or more case studies, such as: the Sacks of Rome, the Napoleonic wars, Nazi looting, the Cultural Revolution in China, Afghanistan under Taliban rule.

Latin American Art - NOT OFFERED 2017-18

ARTH 272/3.0

Surveys the art and architecture of Latin America from the pre-Hispanic period to the present, from Patagonia to California. Particular attention is paid to the contribution of aboriginal artists and traditions to colonial visual culture and the built environment. Considers the rise of the academies, Nationalism, Indigenism, Romanticism, Modernism (Kahlo, Rivera, Tarsila), Madí and Chicano muralism.

Topics in Modern and Contemporary Art is about drawing as a medium, practice, and object. We will explore how drawing has become legitimized as an autonomous field of theory and practice, especially over the past 30 years. Our readings and visual analyses will emphasize the question: what it is about drawing that makes it so closely associated with the affective—especially with themes of time, choice, and thought?

This survey examines key German buildings and monuments from the beginning of German Confederation to the end of the Third Reich. Emphasis will be placed on situating this architecture in its broader cultural and social context.

This course considers the retrospective tendencies in art of the so-called ‘Romanesque period’ leading up to the ‘Gothic’. Considering monuments across all media, we discuss concepts of artistic development in cathedral, monastic and secular settings. We will also consider modes of ‘reading’ and interpretation of medieval art in terms of contemporary modes of perception.

This course examines the changes in European art later known as ‘Gothic’. With a focus on England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, this class will consider major monuments across the media, from manuscript painting to architecture, stained glass, sculpture and ars sacra. Throughout, monuments will be placed in their appropriate social, historical and patronal contexts.

A study of women as subjects in art, producers of art, patrons and viewers of art, and writers of art history. Specific female artists will be considered within their historical contexts and within theoretical frameworks that have become important to feminist art historians during the past 15 to 20 years (for example, Marxist theory, reception theory, gender theory, psychoanalytic theory).

PREREQUISITE: Level 3 or above. It is recommended that students have taken ARTH 120.

A study of gender in relation to modern visual culture from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries using theoretical frameworks drawn from feminist art history and gender studies. Topics to be studied include fashion and modernity, consumer culture, gendered and transgendered artistic identitites, and the gendering of Modernism.

A study of the arts and visual culture of the Indigenous peoples of the northern circumpolar region encompassing Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, with a main focus on Dorset, Thule, and post-1950 Inuit arts. Students will examine the development of modern Inuit art markets, including reception, promotion, and circulation in the south.

RECOMMENDATION: ARTH 248/3.0

PREREQUISITE: Level 3 or above.

Instructor: N. Vorano (winter term)

Printmaking in Early Modern Europe - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 352/3.0

A chronological survey of the history of printmaking in Western Europe from its beginnings in the 15th century to the Industrial Revolution. Topics include the cultural impact of the reproducible image, the development of woodcut, engraving, etching and lithography, and the achievements of printmakers such as Dürer, Goltzius, Callot, Rembrandt, Hogarth and Goya.

A detailed study of paintings produced in the Netherlands, ca. 1580-1700. Developments in style and the growth of subject types such as genre, portraiture, landscape, and still life are examined in the cultural context of life in the Dutch Republic, with particular attention to the achievements of artists such as Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer.

PREREQUISITE: Level 3 or above. It is recommended that students have taken ARTH 120 and ARTH 253.

This course examines the phenomenon of the city, a settlement of high density that has, throughout history, offered many distinctive social and cultural experiences. The focus of this course will be urban art, architecture, planning, and material culture, and their relationship to those experiences. Specific urban case studies, Western and non-Western, will provide the foundation for our study.

PREREQUISITE: Level 3 or above.

Instructor: K. Romba (fall term)

Writing Art History Today - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 390/3.0

An examination of the history of the discipline and the epistemological assumptions underpinning art historical research and writing in the past and present.

Students in Art History and Fine Art can apply to take a practical internship in a museum or gallery, where they would undertake research or curatorial activities. All internships must be approved in advance by written application to the Undergraduate Coordinator. Approval will depend on the quality of the proposal and the academic record of the applicant. Students are required to write a report about their experience and are evaluated jointly by the employer and a faculty member from the Department of Art. It is the responsibility of students to arrange internships. Please review the Internship Guidelines and Internship Application Form.

NOTE: Depending on location, substantial travel and subsistence costs may be involved.

Instructor: Various

Level 400 Courses

PREREQUISITE FOR ALL 400-LEVEL COURSES
A GPA of 2.60 in ARTH and level 4 and registration in an ARTH major or medial plan or permission of the Department.

Studies in Renaissance Painting Technique - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 402/3.0

An in-depth study in Renaissance painting techniques in Italy and/or Northern Europe. Selected issues of technique and conservation will be examined within broader art-historical framework.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

A general survey course dealing with various aspects of conservation and museology. The course deals with professional ethics, control of the factors causing deterioration and with preventive conservation including care in handling, transporting, and storing cultural property. Open to upper-year undergraduate students with permission of the Department.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

The House: Studies in the History of an Idea - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 425/3.0

This course considers the house as a central typology in the history of architecture and will explore it in its fullest theoretical and literary contexts. We consider the house as an idea and a material whole, including the art that is housed, the functions and performances that it staged, and the patrons, architects and designers that created it.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

This course will examine a range of anthropological theories and will assess their potential methodological roles in art historical analysis.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: K.Romba (fall term)

Studies in Indigenous Arts and Visual Culture in North America - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 438/3.0

This seminar offers an in-depth study of a topic in North American Indigenous arts and visual culture, including theoretical and methodological readings.

PREREQUISITES: A GPA of 2.60 in 24.0 units in ARTH and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: N/A

Topics in Northern Renaissance and Baroque Art - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 446/3.0

A detailed study of one artist or theme in the visual culture of northern Europe, primarily The Netherlands and/or Germany. Topics may focus on the Renaissance and/or Baroque era (ca. 1400-1750).

PREREQUISITES: A GPA of 2.60 in 24.0 units in ARTH and level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan. It is recommended that students have taken a 200 or 300-level course on a relevant topic (ARTH 214, 215, 253, 352, 353, 354, 375). This course is especially recommended for students who have taken ARTH 353 Flemish Baroque Painting.

Instructor: N/A

Caravaggio and Artemisia - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 451/3.0

Explores Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi and contemporaries in Baroque Italy. Considers issues such as naturalism/idealism, patronage, populist piety, gender. One of the goals is to look at the ways in which these artists' personalities have been projected onto their work by scholars, essayists, novelists, and filmmakers.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

An assessment of hybrid art focusing on the period of European evangelization of non-European civilizations, 15th-19th c., a global encounter involving the widest spectrum of peoples, races, cultures, and regions. Will consider the transformation of the arts of Early Modern Europe in contact situations in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Quebec.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: G. Bailey (fall term)

Gothic Sculpture - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 482/3.0

A study of the evolution of Gothic sculpture from the mid-12th century to the 15th century. Topics will range from the elaborate sculptural programs of great cathedrals to the work of Claus Sluter and other major sculptors of the late Middle Ages.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

This course will explore the diverse materials used for sculpture (marble, bronze, wood, clay, wax, etc.) and their social functions: how sculptures were a part of cult practices, dressing sculptures, speaking statues, miraculous sculptures, iconoclasm, reliquaries, and domestic objects.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: U. D’Elia (winter term)

16th-Century Painting in Venice - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 486/3.0

An examination of selected topics in the painting of Venice and the Veneto.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: N/A

Studies in the Literature of Art - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

​ARTH 492/3.0

The detailed, analytic study of a selected body of texts within the literature of art, directed towards gaining an understanding of the dominant theories, critical attitudes, or historical perspectives on art during a particular period.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.

Instructor: N/A

Topics in Baroque Art - NOT OFFERED 2017/18

ARTH 494/3.0

A study of selected topics in the art of the 17th century.

PREREQUISITE: A GPA of 2.60 in a minimum of 24.0 units in ARTH courses and Level 4 and registration in an ARTH Major or Medial Plan.